Football and feasts: First World War Christmas truce

The plan was to repair trenches and bury fallen soldiers. But the 1914
Christmas truce stirred human feelings, leading to jovial gatherings of
wartime enemies

Christmas truce: soldiers of the 1/5th City of London Rgt (London Rifle Brigade) fraternising with Saxons of the 104th and 106th Infantry Rgts at Ploegsteert, Belgium, on December 25, 1914

By Alan Wakefield

6:18PM GMT 29 Nov 2013

December 1914 witnessed one of the most famous events of the First World War. The Christmas Truce, as it became known, involved large numbers of British, French and German soldiers on the Western Front. Along the 30 miles of line held by the British Expeditionary Force south of Ypres, impetus for the truce came from the need to repair trenches and bury the dead.

As both sides struggled to improve living conditions, the intensity of fighting died down. As the weather worsened, both sides risked sending out working parties in daylight to repair trenches. On Christmas Eve, the weather changed with the arrival of a sharp frost, causing the ground to harden.

That evening, British soldiers noticed strange activity along sectors of the German line. Major Henriques (1/16th Londons) recalled how, as darkness fell, firing slackened and the Germans began putting up lanterns along their trenches. Soon afterwards the singing of carols and patriotic German songs was heard, which the British applauded. Men began shouting remarks across no-man’s land and the night passed without a shot being fired.

With friendly relations established, more adventurous souls on each side moved the truce to another level on Christmas Day. Private Jack Chappell (1/5th Londons) wrote home that in the morning his battalion and the Germans opposite agreed not to fire. Men on both sides began showing themselves above the trenches and waved to each other. When no shots were fired, German and British soldiers climbed out of their trenches and walked into no-man’s land.

In a scene repeated at many places on the front line, men met and exchanged food, drink, cigarettes, sweets and souvenirs. In some places photographs were taken and at others soldiers from both sides came together and took part in impromptu kickabouts with footballs.

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There was no set formula to the truce. Much depended on what activity, if any, commanding officers allowed. On some sectors, open fraternisation continued beyond Boxing Day. Lt Dougan Chater (2nd Gordon Highlanders) wrote to his mother that the Germans opposite his battalion had requested a further meeting at New Year to see photographs taken on Christmas Day.

Units that took part in the truce usually maintained a “live and let live” attitude for as long as possible. However, the fact should not be overlooked that the truce was not universal and 81 British soldiers were killed on Christmas Day, including Sgt Frank Collins (2nd Monmouthshires), shot by a sniper after leaving his trench to take part in the truce.

The reaction of senior officers to the truce was mixed. A number issued instructions forbidding involvement, others sanctioned the event as an opportunity to carry out maintenance and bury the dead. But once such work was completed, commanders on both sides were anxious to get the war started again, fearing fraternisation would permanently affect the fighting spirit of their men.

Orders were issued at the highest level that anyone persisting with such activity would be courtmartialled. Evidence suggests a number of British officers feared censure over their part in the truce and much effort was made to portray the event as an ideal intelligence-gathering opportunity. Official reports carry information on German regimental insignia, the apparent age and physical fitness of German soldiers and details of enemy trenches. Even general information gleaned from newspapers exchanged during the truce was cited as evidence of morale on the German home front.

Men of a Royal Engineers signal company pluck turkeys for their seasonal meal

But senior commanders need not have worried about the truce developing into a general ‘‘soldier’s peace’’ as most taking part simply regarded it as a festive interlude in a war that had to be won.

The following year, commanders on both sides were determined to prevent a repetition. Instructions were issued that anyone fraternising with the enemy would face serious punishment.

Such concerns had foundation as small-scale but prolonged fraternisation took place between British and German infantry at St Éloi in November 1915 and on other sectors relations between opposing troops were reported as friendly.

Orders were given for artillery and machine-guns to be particularly active on Christmas Day and a number of senior officers made personal visits to the front line to check that soldiers were not engaging in any form of truce.

But such measures did not entirely stop the practice. At Laventie, units of the Guards Division fraternised with the 13th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment. This incident was quickly stamped out and inquiries held at brigade and divisional level. Matters escalated and on January 4, 1916, repercussions of the event hit the 1st Scots Guards with the arrest of their commanding officer, Capt Miles Barne, and company commander, Capt Sir Iain Colquhoun. Barne was acquitted and Colquhoun recommended for a reprimand at court martial. Colquhoun’s punishment was remitted by Sir Douglas Haig because of his previous distinguished service record.

In later years, no major truces occurred on the Western Front. The war took on an increasingly dehumanising and industrial dimension with huge attritional battles, the use of poison gas, unrestricted submarine warfare and the bombing of civilians. All this ensured there were fewer men inclined to have a friendly disposition towards the enemy.

Despite this, isolated incidents took place such as that recorded by Pte Arthur Burke (20th Manchesters), who wrote to his brother on December 29, 1916, stating his unit and the Germans opposite were on speaking terms, frequently swapped cigarettes and hardly fired a shot at each other. At this time the opposing infantry were manning shell holes rather than trenches, movement was difficult and conditions so poor that the men had simply come to an understanding to make life more bearable.

Away from the Western Front, a soldier’s Christmas experience often depended on the opposition he faced. In the Balkans, where men of the British Salonika Force faced Bulgarian troops, the festive season was often extended as the Orthodox Bulgarians celebrated Christmas on January 7 and both sides generally respected each other’s celebrations.

At the other extreme it was not unknown for Turkish forces to launch major attacks around Christmas in an attempt to catch the British troops off guard. This happened on Christmas Eve 1915 during the siege of Kut Al Amara in Mesopotamia, when the garrison desperately fought off repeated Turkish attacks against a key part of the town defences.

Making do: Christmas dinner in a shellhole near Beaumont-Hamel, France, 1916

Christmas was also a busy time for Army postal services handling the dispatch of letters and parcels to service personnel. The presents brought soldiers closer to family and friends at home. Typical gifts included hand-knitted socks, scarves, gloves and balaclavas, tobacco and cigarettes, chocolate and homemade cakes. The condition in which a parcel reached its destination depended greatly on the skill of the packer and length of journey undertaken.

The unfortunate Pte Frederick Goldthorpe, serving in Mesopotamia, received a Christmas cake in March 1916 only to find that the long-awaited treat was inedible, having spent three months packed in the same box as a bar of scented soap.

Alongside homemade items, many parcels contained commercially produced items. In 1915, a number of department stores including Harrods, Fortnum & Mason and Selfridges set up war comforts departments that gathered together all items a soldier on active service could possibly need. For relatives unable to visit stores in person, catalogues were produced listing items suitable for sending to men at the front. Soon it was possible to buy prepacked “standard” boxes of food and comforts.

Harrods offered different boxes for those serving on the Western Front and in the Middle East. Regimental associations, town councils and organisations in Allied countries also provided Christmas gifts to men at the front. In December 1917, the 1/4th Royal Berkshires, serving in Italy, received £50 and gifts from their county territorial association. Additional presents for serving soldiers included chocolate and soap courtesy of the Italian Touring Club. In many units, officers clubbed together to provide Christmas dinner for the men under their command. Securing sufficient food could prove a major procurement exercise involving an inventive combination of purchasing, requisitioning and pilfering.

At these dinners it was traditional for officers to wait on the men and the commanding officer usually put in an appearance to wish everyone the compliments of the season. Such events built morale and a spirit of camaraderie between officers and men. Soldiers also procured their own food for Christmas with friends clubbing together to visit local markets or trade with civilians for turkeys, geese, hens, rabbits and even goats. Some enterprising men even reared their own livestock or poultry; though this option was really only open to support units serving behind the lines.

Communal Christmas dinners were usually followed by entertainments. These could take the form of men within a unit performing musical and comedic ‘‘turns” or a visit to the local concert party. The latter produced musical revues and pantomimes, often to a very professional standard even in the wilds of Mesopotamia or the Balkans.

In Macedonia, chief among the performers were men of the 85th Field Ambulance who put on the premier shows in Salonika: Aladdin in Macedonia, Bluebeard and Dick Whittington. The stories and characters were frequently changed to reflect the nature of Army life in the Balkans. In the production of Dick Whittington, for example, the villains, Count Maconochie and Sir Joseph Paxton, were named respectively after brands of tinned stew and jam that were staple rations for British troops during the First World War. Sports were also popular, with football and rugby being to the fore among the British troops. Matches that pitted teams of officers, NCOs and other ranks against each other were particularly competitive and where troops of Allied armies served alongside each other it was possible to play internationals.

For most of the soldiers who fought in the First World War, whether volunteer or conscript, the war marked their first significant period of time away from home. Christmas was a time to focus on the family through the sending and receipt of letters, cards and gifts, helping take men’s minds away from the reality of life at the front. Besides their immediate families, soldiers received evidence that their service was valued by their local communities, who sent Christmas gifts through the many comfort committees or servicemen’s support organisations that sprang up during the war.

No matter where troops found themselves – be it the muddy winter trenches of France and Flanders, the deserts of the Middle East, among the ravines of Gallipoli or Macedonia, the mountains of Italy or the African bush – a good meal, presents, decorations, cards, concerts, general entertainments and sports were all on the checklist for a wartime Christmas. These elements, which are common to peacetime celebrations, brought some measure of familiarity and normality to the lives of ordinary men living through extraordinary events.

*Alan Wakefield, head of photographs, IWM, wrote Christmas in the Trenches (The History Press Ltd)